Mater Dei High School wants the City of Santa Ana to provide $1.79 MILLION of our city funds for their new parking structure project. Mater Dei needs to build a new alley, resurface St. Andrews St, and install traffic lights at Bristol and St. Andrews as part of their project.

“We are asking the city to be a good corporate sponsor with us for a cap of $1.79 million dollars” Patrick Murphy from Mater Dei High School.

The city just spent millions in SB-1 and M2 Bond Measure money widening and improving Bristol St right in front of Mater Dei and now they want more?

The city is currently facing a huge budget deficit and is going to be making cuts to the services and programs the city offers. The library is being asked to make a $200K cut to their budget and is looking at closing on Sundays.

There are numerous other city streets that need to be repaired in Santa Ana. Did Jose Solorio ever get Raitt St repaired between First and Fifth St that many residents asked him to do?

Council member Salvador Tinajero was the most vocal against the request, and reminded us that the city already provided a large piece of city owned property to build a parking lot directly across the street on Edinger for Mater Dei’s use.

Council member David Benavides was supportive of Mater Dei’s request. Maybe because his non-profit, KidWorks, has benefited from Mater Dei in the past?

Council member Villegas also supported Mater Dei’s request but mentioned all the illegal activity taking place in the 19 empty houses that Mater Dei now owns.

“So you have 19 properties that have been bought already. You have a big lot over there that’s dark. I know people are going over there and doing drugs. You’re going to find needles over there cause I’ve already received the complaints.” Councilman Juan Villegas.

So why isn’t Mater Dei providing security to prevent all the illegal activity on their property that’s impacting the surrounding neighborhood?

Back in June 2016, Mater Dei asked the city for $2.5M of city funds to help pay for their parking structure and luckily the city denied it.

How in good conscience can Mater Dei ask the city for $1.79M at a time like this?=snip=

Wow. Santa Ana saying no to Mater Dei.

Last edited by Tommy Tar on Wed May 16, 2018 1:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

With a National Championship Mater Dei has put Santa Ana on the map, the city council shouldbe happy it's no longer just a hot air wind condition. Think of the ad campaign,"Santa Ana home of Mater Dei we are no longer just full of hot air!"What do you guys think?

I’m shocked that the city councilman would suggest that there is crime and drug use occurring on Mater Dei property. That can’t be in such a fine neighborhood. According to MD folks it is a crime free zone.

If this is accurate, the ask of a struggling SoCal county seat city for those numbers, for a HS parking structure, at this moment in time, is borderline outrageous.

But honestly, from a national perspective, is there anything in Santa Ana that brings more positive attention and notoriety to the city than Mater Dei?? I'll wait. The only way a ton of people in far off states like Maryland or Montana or Hawaii or Louisiana will have heard of Santa Ana, even anecdotally, would be through Mater Dei.

Same can be said re: Bosco and Bellflower, a place that even most people on here have never been to and will never go.

Hmm, this is interesting because only two houses are left to be demolished and they are boarded up and fenced in, in fact all the other houses have been demolished and it's open land ( a very large area) and it's all fenced in, the three story parking structure begins construction begins next month,I've been toldand will park approximately 1100 vehicles, no residents in the surrounding neighborhood has complainedabout illegal activity to MD, the vast majority welcome the change that is taking place.

Don't know where the fake news is coming from - On a side note after the parking structure is built, a two/three story performing arts center will be built along with a new two story hi-tech academicbuilding, the school had to wait for the parking structure to be built to accommodate the increasedcar/foot traffic as the plan is for the elementary Santa Ana public school kids to use the facility also, fyi

A little trivia,in the mid 80'S,the Diocese was going to move the campus to the Costa Mesa area, the city powers at be, found out about it and practically begged the Diocese to keep MD in the city, dealswere cut at the time with those past SA city councils to keep the school in the city, for all we knowsome of those deals could have been financial assistance down the line that the present city councilmembers and the SA general public were not aware of, until recently or have been made aware of,

..in an case,parts of two/three city streets will become part of the parking structure and alleviate theparking problems in the neighborhood, down the line, MD will will purchasing other houses apparently toincrease the size of the campus -fields,etc

Second, requesting funds from the city as a corporate sponsor is a common practice when private construction will eventually benefit the city (in this case, the city's public schools). Such requests are made all the time. People might remember the city agreeing to foot the bill for a garish Las Vegas-style LED billboard on the 55 Fwy to benefit the private auto dealers in the Santa Ana Auto Mall.

Third, the city did not "just spend millions" to widen Bristol St. "right in front of Mater Dei". It spent millions to widen Bristol from south of Mater Dei all the way to Santa Ana College, a distance of almost three miles. It was a widening and beautification project almost 27 years in the planning and execution to benefit the entire city and its residents. Making it sound like this was a municipal expenditure to benefit Mater Dei is disingenuous.

Fourth, the parking lot built by the city north of Edinger Ave. is not specifically for Mater Dei's use. In fact, it is rarely used by Mater Dei students because of its inconvenience.

Fifth, as cruiser has pointed out, most of those 19 homes have been demolished and the property graded for construction. Those complaining about the activities in those 19 homes are either misinformed or intentionally misleading.

Sixth, if there is drug use and illegal activity occurring on that property, isn't it the responsibility of the city and its police department to correct it? It sounds like the author is proposing that Mater Dei should provide its own vigilante enforcement of criminal wrongdoing.

And seventh, thanks to Professor Fate for providing his predictably catty response to the opening post.

Yes MDDad, and the 1.7 million has nothing to do regarding the parking structure construction itselfbut I believe it's for the auxiliary aspects of the areas around the structure that is on city property, fyi

...in any case, I remember seeing the city council meeting on this,and the MD president told the councilthis request was in the spirit of the original agreement made with MD in the 80's, he told the council indirectly that they can honor it or in any case it would be funded by the Diocese/MD if need be andhe left it at that - nothing more or less...

Santa Ana is lucky to have Mater Dei, the school offers kids from Santa Ana a chance at a great education ( especially because of financial aid available ) brings a positive reflection of Santa Ana nationally and pays rent to their stadium.So Santa Ana pony over the $$$ and you haters find something else to complain about, I'm sure you can!

watchersince68 wrote:Source of the post With a National Championship Mater Dei has put Santa Ana on the map

NotDonaldBren wrote:Source of the post But honestly, from a national perspective, is there anything in Santa Ana that brings more positive attention and notoriety to the city than Mater Dei?? I'll wait. The only way a ton of people in far off states like Maryland or Montana or Hawaii or Louisiana will have heard of Santa Ana, even anecdotally, would be through Mater Dei.

Daforno wrote:Source of the post brings a positive reflection of Santa Ana nationally and pays rent to their stadium.

You people have an interesting idea about what the phrases "put on the map," "a ton of people," and "reflection nationally" mean. Nobody outside of the area even knows, let alone cares, what a Mater Dei is.

There are plenty of things to criticize Mater Dei for. Asking for money isn't one of them.

I love the MD defenders, MD is never wrong. The real facts on projects

1) City can condition any project to install traffic signals if the full or modified EIR warrants. Traffic signals cost about 250 to 300k..it does not matter who you are, staff has to follow CEQA or city subject to lawsuits. In fact if the city has finding they can apply all kinds of condition. MD can always cancel the project, well to the State of California and real estate development. Easier to convert Samoan linemen to the Church? 2) Private property, is a private parties responsibility. The city does not go inside a gated condo and patrol so yes it is MD responsibility, sorry ...What is the status of the parking lot, city owned and MD to maintain ? 3) The city used Measure M and similar monies...BS response the city spent millions..not really true, the money was earmarked...In city's best interest to clean up the corridor ...MD Dad is somewhat right 4) Lastly it is ironic in a socialist city like SA, their response ..MD should have said this parking is for the undocumented and then it would have been approved.

I love the fact MD winning the mythical championship is the rationalization, they pour some powerful punch at MD..best laugh I had all day

The Fan wrote:2) Private property, is a private parties responsibility. The city does not go inside a gated condo and patrol so yes it is MD responsibility, sorry ...

I think we're playing semantics games here. Yes, private property is the responsibility of the private property owner. However, if criminal activity is conducted on that property, it is the responsibility of the local police or sheriff's department to make the arrests and stop the activity. That's why we have laws against vigilantism.

NotDonaldBren wrote:But honestly, from a national perspective, is there anything in Santa Ana that brings more positive attention and notoriety to the city than Mater Dei?? I'll wait. The only way a ton of people in far off states like Maryland or Montana or Hawaii or Louisiana will have heard of Santa Ana, even anecdotally, would be through Mater Dei.

Most people from far off places that would look at a map and want to know where Santa Ana is has nothing to do with MD or football. Has a lot more to do with the letters SNA for an airport. That is how that ton of people you referred to would know, not MD.

Wow, Santa Ana & Santa Ana Valley high schools, yep; back in the day,top of the line FBprograms, but alas, the demographics starting changing from the mid-late 70's, as all the old time Santa Ana residents and even newer families moved out of the city. Santa Ana has drastically changed from 1990 to the present for a number of reasons. I'll leave it at that..